The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
Where does your wanderlust lead you?
To Melbourne’s cafes or the vast deserts of the Empty Quarter, a New Zealand vineyard or the pavements of New York… what’s your neighbourhood?
Join travel journalists and editors Kirstie Bedford and Belinda Jackson for inspiring stories and inside information from across the world.
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The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
EP 97 On safari in southern Africa; what's new on Australia's ski slopes & find your travel tribe
"Southern Africa is very hard to describe; for many people, you get bitten by something, or you breathe something in, and you become hooked," says Australian author Tony Park.
Speaking to us from his home just north of Kruger National Park in South Africa, Tony shares his vast experience about going on safari in southern and east Africa. From the Kruger to the Kalahari, we're taking self-drive safaris on a budget, which regions are better for different wildlife and wildlife poaching.
"The best way to tackle poaching is to uplift the communities and the people, who feel that their only option is to turn to wildlife crime," he says. "So the best thing for wildlife is to visit Africa."
Tony has published 22 novels set in southern Africa; his 23rd, Die by the Sword, is out at the end of July, and like all his novels, it has a strong environmental and wildlife conservation angle. See tonypark.net
Also, what's new on the slopes for the Australian ski season? From lifts to going cashless. Visit perisher.com, thredbo.com.au, charlottepass.com.au and perisher.com.au
And find out which of the Avani Tribes you belong to, and then match your destination to your personality type at https://tribes.avanihotels.com.
This mini-series is brought to you by Avani Hotels & Resorts. With more than 40 properties across five continents, Avani offers city hotels, tropical resorts and retreats in nature. For more, visit avanihotels.com
Tony’s picks:
For a great, all-inclusive luxury safari experience in South Africa, check out the Sabi Sabi collection of lodges in South Africa's Sabi Sand Game Reserve: sabisabi.com
A bit cheaper, but in a great game viewing area inside the Kruger National Park is Imbali Game Reserve (and also check out its neighbouring, affiliate properties, Hamiltons and Hoyo Hoyo), imbali.com
If you’re game for a self-drive trip (which will save you loads), fly from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport to Skukuza in the Kruger National Park and hire an Avis or Europcar rental car and stay in self-catering accommodation (there are also restaurants in most of Kruger’s rest camps), sanparks.org
For a get-away-from-it-all safari in an untouristy-park, check out Hwange National Park, close to Victoria Falls. These are good places: hideawaysafrica.com, robinscamp.com
In East Africa, Tony prefers the Serengeti in Tanzania to Kenya’s Masai Mara. Maasai Wanderings, owned by an Aussie woman does excellent mobile safaris, maasaiwanderings.com
Visit us at https://theworldawaits.au
Welcome to The World Awaits. Travel tales to inspire your wanderlust. Welcome back to The World Awaits. This mini-series is brought to you by Avani Hotels and Resorts. With more than 40 properties from five continents, Avani offers city hotels, tropical resorts and retreats in nature. For more, visit avanihotels.com.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, everyone. Gosh, the cold is well and truly kicked in Melbourne here at the moment now that we're actually in June. For those who are listening back on playback, hello. But yes, it's great. Whether it be head down writing and editing, given that's about all I've done this week. How about you, Belle? I did do a
SPEAKER_02:pottery class in Finesford, which is a beautiful little historic area just outside Geelong with Elizabeth Bell Ceramics. If you don't know this area, it's home to Providence, one of Australia's best value wineries, according to Halliday. as well as a couple of cute little cafes and craft workshops. It's just magical in winter. I was channeling my inner Demi Moore and made a nice vase, not even an ashtray. And if you're up for a turn of the wheel, she, Elizabeth, runs pottery taster classes and even a unique taste on kids' birthday parties. So that's a great one to have down in Geelong. And I've been writing like a demon, very chuffed to have a couple of pieces in the Financial Review recently, one about the Austrian composer Strauss, because as I've mentioned on the show before, This is a great year if you're planning to visit Vienna for all of the new museums and the concerts underway.
SPEAKER_01:So good. And speaking of destinations that are music to your soul, we have a cute little quiz from our sponsors, Avani Hotels, which was created so travellers can find their tribe. So how it works is you basically log on and you answer a few questions and it comes up with the ideal holiday just for you. This is actually a fun one to
SPEAKER_02:try. So we took the quiz separately, no cheating, at the website tribes.avanihotels.com. And it asks you to choose your dream travel experience from six options, such as intrepid exploration, sunsets and soulmates, mindful moments or culinary adventures. And then you choose the trails or the waves or the sky and an emotive word. And voila, it gives you your top spot to holiday.
SPEAKER_01:So I started by choosing Intrepid Explorer. Me too. And then it asks you if your intrepid explorer is conquering the trails, soaring the sky or riding the waves. And of course, I chose the hiking option. Me too. And then it asks you how you want to feel from your holiday. And it gives you six options. Do you want to feel relaxed, nourished? And I chose inspired. Me too. So my choice was adventure. And the destination it chose for me was Zambia.
SPEAKER_02:So actually, we're both going to Zambia, according to this one, because you just can't get rid of me, Kirsty. I've got to say, Zambia is also very apt, given our interview coming up shortly, which is all things Southern Africa. The quiz goes on to suggest a destination and an Avani property, which means, in our case, Kirsty, we should be going to the Avani Victoria Falls Resort in Zambia. The resort has stays from$300 a night and things like Zambian village dining experiences and sundowner cruises on the Victorian Falls, which would be just amazing. And lots
SPEAKER_01:of hiking and trekking, which was my point. Yes, I'm desperate to go there and do that. To test the quiz a little bit further, because we unfortunately or fortunately came up with the same result. I also chose mindful moments holiday. And then instead of yoga or lounging the spa, went for a massage-oriented holiday, which makes you feel relaxed. And the tribe was Wellness Wanderer. And it sent me to the coastal town of Hua Hin, south of Bangkok in Thailand. And there, the Avani Plus Hua Hin has packages from just$147 a night. And that includes an hour-long massage. with, get this, with pizza. Who would have thought? Pizza and massage,
SPEAKER_02:pretty nice, right? So I gave the quiz another crack as well. I chose Sidious Gates and asked for a style adventure that makes me feel passionate. They were my three steps I went through. And that tribe is creatives. And it sent me to Milan, where the Avani Palazzo Moscovo Milan has so many fabulous experiences, some of which we talked about last week, including this one I really loved, a guided vintage shopping trip. And also choose on a Fiat 500. So jump back to last week's app and take a listen.
SPEAKER_01:And the point of it is really just to get you thinking a bit more about the type of traveler you are and what experience might be best for you, this whole Avani tribes. And you never know, it might just throw you out of your comfort zone a bit. And that's where the magic of travel really starts anyway. So we'll put a link in the show notes to help you find your travel tribe.
SPEAKER_02:If you're enjoying this episode of The World Awaits, why not find out which of the Avani tribes you belong to and then match your destination to your personality type at tribes.avanihotel.com. And for more about Avani Hotels, head to avanihotels.com. This week, my guest is Australian thriller author Tony Park, who lives just north of Kruger National Park in South Africa. We're talking about safari experiences in the southern African countries, how to go on safari without breaking the bank, and also his 23rd novel, which is just about to hit the streets. Take a listen. Welcome to The World Awaits. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast because I have been reading your work for years. So welcome onto the pod.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks so much, Bill. It's really great to be here and thanks for the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, absolutely. Look, the pleasure is all mine because I want to know everything about what you do. Firstly, how you became such a prolific author and living in South Africa when you are clearly an Australian.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I'm an Aussie. I'm living in South Africa pretty much full time these days. So yeah, to make a long story short, my wife Nicola and I came to South Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana in 1995 on what was supposed to be a once in a lifetime trip and turned out to be anything but. Because what happens here in Africa, it's a sort of place where it's very hard to describe. You come thinking, I'm just going to tick this off my bucket list. But for many people, something happens. You either get bitten by something or you breathe something in or you drink something, I don't know. But it's very easy to become hooked on this continent. Part of it's the wildlife, which is a big attraction for many people coming. But it's also the way of life and the people and just the whole vibe here. And I think, no, I know for sure that by the end of that first three-week holiday. Possibly by the end of the first week, we'd already planned a return visit and we came back every year. Since then, for the last 30 years, with the exception of a year I went to Afghanistan with the Ami, which is another story, but otherwise we've come to Africa every year. And of course we spent more time here. That first trip coincided with me doing what I had always wanted to do since I was a little kid. And that was to write a book. All I wanted to do in life was to write a novel. And I actually had left work around that time with the grace of my wife, Nicola. She gave me six months to write a book. And I wrote a book and I failed. It never got published. But on our third trip back to Africa, I had another go. And I wrote a book set on a fictitious tour around Southern Africa, which we were doing once more. And I sent it to a publisher, Pam McMillan Australia. And luckily enough, I got published and they said, you can write the Africa books. And here I am, 22 novels later and 10 biographies, still writing the Africa books. And I get to make a living out of it now, combining my two loves, which are Africa and writing.
SPEAKER_02:What a dream. What an absolute dream. And I'm sure that anybody who's ever wanted to write a novel is going to be like, that's going to be me. Of course, let's gloss over the ones that didn't make it. So let's just leave those. So you've got 22 novels in pre. You've got a new one coming out soon. pretty much as we speak, haven't you? So what's the name? Because you were doing, that is part of the big reveal on it. And tell us a bit about the book.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the 23rd novel is called Die by the Sword. And that's dropping on July 29. So it's a dual timeline thriller. I've done one of those in the past where part of the story is set in contemporary Southern Africa, starts off on the beach in Azulu, Natal, near where I currently spend some of my time, and then moves to the historic battlefields area of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. And so the second part of the story takes place in 1880 in the aftermath of the Anglo-Zulu War. So if anyone remembers that old movie Zulu, it's that period. And also the contemporary, a contemporary look at what's happening in South Africa today in terms of conservation and land issues in the country, which is a very big issue at the moment as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. I've read a number of your books, including The Delta, which I think I read going into lockdown and it just let me escape. for a little while the confines of a Melbourne lockdown. And that is an eco-thriller that's set in Botswana. And most recently, the one that I've just finished reading was The Protector, which is all about the illegal trade in pangolins, those odd, scaly little mammals, the world's most trafficked animal for their use in traditional medicine. What I love about the books is your absolute detail, those tiny roads, the local villages in southern Africa. So you've clearly been on a lot of safaris, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, if there's one thing that links all the books, there is that environmental angle. And the trade in endangered wildlife species is one of the top five organized crimes in the world. So it's actually up there with drugs and arms dealing and people smuggling and things like that. So it's a huge problem. One thing I like to point out in the books is the good work that's being done. And you mentioned the protector. And the lead character in The Protector is a university professor who's an expert on pangolins. And in her spare time, she goes undercover with her gun and she busts poaching rings. Now, that might sound too far-fetched to be possibly true, but she's actually based on a real-life person. So there's no shortage of good work being done here in conservation. As to the detail, yeah, I found that what worked for me, particularly as an Australian writing about someone else's part of the world, was to do my research by not actually researching, by just tracking traveling and living. So traveling is a really big part of my writing. And I write my books on location. So if the plot seems to weave a little bit of characters go or find themselves traveling all over Southern Africa, as happens in The Protector, and I buy the sword in the new one, it's because I happen to be on that journey literally at that time. So as I travel, I look around, I listen, I try and pick up the sights, sounds, smells of wherever I am, what the wildlife is doing and what the people are doing and how they talk and what's motivating them and what's important in their lives. So that kind of traveling and writing, just absorbing things as you move around really works well for me.
SPEAKER_02:And that is the skill of a great reporter. And I'm going to use that word advisedly because you are reporting on things that you've seen. You're a conduit for that. And the detail is just astonishing. Can I go into that conservation side? Because it does have a, as you're saying, it is a strong thread through it. When we as travellers are travelling on safari, and I'm going to pick your brains about best places to go, times to the Caesars and stuff like that, but just about wildlife trafficking. When we are travelling on safari, how can we as travellers help Because if you're going to something like the Protector, on your website, you've actually talked about how you saw a trafficking bust in that. So you've really got hands-on experience about it. I feel quite distant from it. Is there anything I can do to help pitch in on that?
SPEAKER_00:You know, just by being there, by taking a decision to travel to Africa, it's a huge continent and you've got to pick where you want to go. We'll talk about that, I guess, soon. Tourism is a crucial part of most African countries' economies. And it's probably the best thing for wildlife. It's really simple, but really complex. Somewhere like the Kruger Park near where I live is surrounded by lots and lots of people, hundreds of thousands of people who live a very basic existence, who live in poverty in some cases. Their main shot at a job is in And the tourism facilities that they visit when they're run properly will invest back into local communities. And the best way to tackle the problem of poaching is to uplift the communities and the people that feel that their only option is to turn to crime and to turn to wildlife crime. Because right here is this massive national park. in their backyard, full of animals that people overseas will pay illegally to get hold of, things like rhino horn and elephant ivory and pangolin scales, which, as you say, are used in medicine. So just being here is good. And if you're on holiday in any African country, a good operator, a good tourism operator, or even if you do your own research, will point you towards hopefully some project in the community that's designed to do that. And sometimes that can be as simple as making sure that local kids get a chance to get into the national park and actually see wildlife and gain an appreciation for it. And sure, some of those communities need a helping hand in terms of other things, such as school books for schools, such as clean water for the village, job opportunities. Come along, be part of it. And if you're minded to do that, you'll have no problem. finding ways in which to help and the best way to help i think is to help give people a hand up and become more self-sufficient self-sustainable i support a very good program called nourish which is a little eco village on the edge of the kruger park And they do all of those things. They educate kids. They provide childminding so mum and dad can go to work. Vegetable gardens. They give support to grandmas who are often left at home looking after little kids because both parents have to work. They do after-school English language tuition to help kids get a leg up at home. Those sort of things are building sustainability in communities. And as I said, giving people an alternative to becoming poachers.
SPEAKER_02:That is really interesting because I think often people overlook the value of tourism. Like it's just seen as a a superfluous thing that people with money do. You know, I'm going to go on safari. And I've got to say, every time I've met somebody that goes on safari, they're always booking another one. So as you say, you get bitten once and you never leave it go. So that's really fascinating. Are there any other larger projects or conservation projects that you work with yourself, aside from these like nourish?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm involved in a, I'm the patron of a Perth-based charity called Painted Dog Conservation, and that's all about focusing on conserving the endangered African wild dog, also known as the painted dog. And again, a lot of the work they do is supporting, they support in situ projects. They don't come to Africa and say, we're going to save the world. So they work with researchers and conservation people in countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia and South Africa. And they're on one hand helping the researcher who's trying to keep an eye on these endangered animals and look after the painted dogs. But many of those programs also have their own community outreach modules as well too. So if you look at a good wildlife charity like Painted Dog Conservation, that's an Aussie-based charity for the Australians that are listening, and they do fantastic work. And it's real kind of grassroots, no overheads. The money people donate goes straight into projects like that. So again, it's an example of wildlife. and conservation and local communities working hand in hand. And yeah, just to get back to your earlier point, in the area where I live in South Africa, the number one employment employer and the number one opportunity for people to get jobs is tourism. So yeah, don't underestimate that the good you're doing while you're here. I would sound the note of caution, be a little bit careful of places that offer things like you can come here and you can pet lion cubs and you can feed little baby lions and things like that. That's a bit of a red flag to me to stay away because some places, I won't name names, but they can be little more than private zoos and they masquerade as kind of conservation type operations.
SPEAKER_02:That is a tricky one because how do you know, apart from that red flag, how do you know that you're choosing a good safari, like an ethical safari, a safari that isn't going to have trafficking and...
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so if you're going to a national park or a private game reserve, the larger private game reserves that are purely focused on taking you out to see wildlife in the wild, that's the best thing to be looking for. There are a number of smaller reserves. that offer these kind of interactive experiences. And sure, some of them do a good job. A couple that I know of that do a good job are Emiri, I-M-I-R-E in Zimbabwe, and they do excellent work in breeding endangered black rhinos. And I know a number of Aussies who've had fantastic trips to Emiri and had a really fulfilling experience where they can get some hands-on experience in conservation. There's a respected wildlife rehabilitation centre here in South Africa called Mahola Hollow. which is near Hood Sprite. They also do good work because what they do is they'll take animals that are injured in car crashes or birds that have flown into power lines and they get them better and then they release them. Just to sound the note on lions, a lot of places advertise you can come here and you can pet little baby lion cubs and we re-release them into the wild. The reality of that is that those lions are most likely destined to be taken somewhere to be hunted because it is are impossible to release a lion back into the wild. So I just do sound that as a note of caution.
SPEAKER_02:That is interesting. And that whole caged hunting thing. Okay. Let us, let me pick your brain with all of that fantastic experience and that overlay of ethical tourism. Go all into those top questions. Okay. Best place for wildlife. If you're just like just first time out, where do you go to see everything? Cause it's such a small good sport, you know?
SPEAKER_00:It's such a big question. And like, I'll put it this way. Like most things in life, Belinda, it comes down to time and money. How much time have you got and how much money do you have? Okay. Generally, from my point of view, I'm a big fan of South Africa for the following reasons. Whatever type of safari you go on, From self-drive, where you come to a country like South Africa and you rent a car or you rent a 4x4 or you rent a camper van and drive around, through to ultimate luxury that you can barely imagine, where you'd be paying several thousands of dollars per person per night, you're going to get better value for money in South Africa. One of the reasons of that is purely logistical. South Africa is the breadbasket or the engine room of much of the rest of the continent. So your food and your wines and everything else that goes with an experience come from here. So this is South Africa. This is their home. So you'll get better value for money here at whatever level that you pick. For wildlife viewing, the Kruger National Park is the prime safari destination, by no means the only one. It's probably my favorite because I think it's the best run national park. I think South African national parks are the the best on the continent in terms of conservation and management. What that brings with it is popularity. So the Cougar Park can be very busy to travel in if you're self-driving. But for every traffic jam where you see 10 vehicles crowded along, not around the line because they're not allowed to drive off-road, you'll come across an amazing sighting of your own. Next to the Kruger Park are a number of luxury, a number of private game reserves, more expensive. There you've got the fully catered safari experience where you get two game drives per day, all your meals, all your drinks included. They're not cheap, but when you look at the price of a hotel room in my wife and I were just in the US recently, travel has become expensive. When you look at that as a safari holiday in which your every need and all of your food and drink are catered for, if you shop around, I think you're worth it. If you don't have much time, that's a good option because a private game reserve, they're in the business of driving you around in an open vehicle and finding the big five, lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, rhino for you. So if you're time poor and cash rich, a private game reserve is good for you. For the amount of money you'd spend on four days in a private game reserve, you could probably spend a week or two hiring an Avis or a Europe car from Skuza Airport in the Kruger National Park, staying in self-catering national parks accommodation and driving yourself around. Going further afield, Namibia is fantastic. If I'm describing it to Australian authors, I'm saying Namibia is like the spectacular outback, but with lions and elephants. So it's a really great, interesting, cool place to go. Botswana tends to be more expensive on every level. It trades off its well-deserved reputation for having lots of animals. So that's a no. The thing about South Africa, just coming back to it, for Australians or Americans or UK people, South Africa has the most first world infrastructure. You can hire a car and drive around. The roads are good. The food is very affordable by Western standards. The people are friendly. The further you get out into Africa, the rougher things, the rest of the continent, the kind of rougher things get. Roads maybe not so good. Things are a little bit more expensive. It often comes down for many people as to where do I go if I don't know? Do I go to East Africa or Southern Africa? So Southern Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia. As I said, probably the most recognizable for foreign travelers in terms of infrastructure. You go to the ATM, you can get your cash out. You can pay by credit card everywhere, that kind of thing too. You can drive a car around. East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania are what many people's concept of a safari is. And that's largely being fueled by the BBC World Documentaries and David Attenborough, where you see the wide open plains of the Maasai Mar and the Serengeti and those hundreds and thousands of wildebeest and zebra and lots of lions and cheetahs and animals doing the great migration across the river. I've been there. I've done it. It's a spectacle. It really is. When you look at the time and money thing, it's expensive. It's far more expensive than Southern Africa. It is a spectacle, but it's a very different experience. In some ways, that part of the world, the Maasai Mara and Serengeti, are a bit of a victim of their own popularity. Because it's open grass plains, particularly the Maasai Mara, you get vehicles driving everywhere, off-road, all over the place. Less so in the Serengeti. Some people have this idea that places like the Kruger Park, because they're busy, as I've mentioned, there's going to be too many people. I think the worst traffic jams that I've seen have been in the Maasai Mara in particular, where I've seen 60 or 70 vehicles literally crowded around an animal or blocking the Mara River and stopping the wildebeest from getting out of the water on their migration crossing. So there's pluses and minuses to everything. The plus side is I don't think I've ever seen so many cheetah and so many lions in a three or four day period as I did in the Serengeti. So of the Masai Mara and the Serengeti, I might as well just tell you my favorites. I would prefer the Serengeti over the Masai Mara. I have no commercial impetus in saying that. Overall, if you're a first timer, getting back to your original question, somewhere like South Africa is going to provide your, you're probably, no, will provide your best value for money. You might get more bang for your buck down there. If you want to get away from it all and get away from the crowds, and have this experience where you can feel like you're the only person there out in the veldt, then have a look at Zimbabwe. Have a look at Wangi National Park, which is very close to Victoria Falls. Of course, the iconic Victoria Falls should be a part of any Southern African safari destination. What a lot of people do is they go to Victoria Falls and then they get on a bus and they cross the border into Botswana and they go to Chobe National Park. Also a very busy national park in Botswana. It was me. I'd go the other way, stay in Zimbabwe, toddle down the road to Wangina National Park and have a real kind of out of Africa, middle of nowhere experience. Yeah. So I'm also a big fan of Zimbabwe. It's a beautiful country.
SPEAKER_02:I did see, I've read a little about your experiences in Zimbabwe. I've been to the Maasai and then to Southern Africa. That's really interesting about the two of them. I've got to say the Maasai are Did the whole treated like a queen, incredible experiences as a journalist. Yeah, amazing. But that it's really great. That's great to have such experience on all of these safaris because it can be quite overwhelming when you're looking for it. If I say all I want to do is see a mass of zebra, so I should be going to Serengeti and Masamara. If I want to hunt for cheetah, then where would you suggest? Hunt is such a bad word. You probably want to go and admire them.
SPEAKER_00:So cheetah is very good in those short grass plains and the Masai Mara and the Serengeti. Interestingly enough, in Wangi National Park, we also see more cheetah than ever before. Part of that's due to the prevalence of elephant. If you want to see elephant, go to Wangi National Park. One of the kind of side effects of having so many elephant in that area is they've changed the environment to a certain extent. There's somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 elephant in that one national park. And they have created more open plains by virtue of their browsing and grazing. In my last few trips to Zimbabwe, I've probably seen more cheetah than ever before. The north of the Kruger Park is very good for cheetah. And that's actually the quietest part of the Kruger Park. And again, there's not so many private lodges up there. There's a couple, but that's the sort of place you could reach with a rental car. And have a think about that. Self-drive safaris are very popular with people from European countries like Holland and Germany and France. Not so much Aussies to think I have to go and stay in a lodge because that's the only way for me to do it and be safe and everybody needs to look after my needs and I'm too scared to drive around by myself. The fact is that there is an airport inside the Kruger Park called Skukuza that I mentioned before and you can actually fly from Joburg to there, pick up a rental car and just do your own thing. Yeah, if you want the spectacle... Of the millions of animals, that's East Africa. In South Africa, yeah, hunting, it's a good analogy actually because you've got to go looking for the animals. And that can be part of the fun. And that's where skilled guides come into their own. The standard of safari guiding is far better across the board in Southern Africa than it is in East Africa. The guides in East Africa don't have to try too hard because you're basically driving around on what is an enormous golf course and everything's there in front of you. Whereas in South Africa, in a private lodge, you'll often have not only your guide, but you'll have a tracker sitting up on the front of the Land Rover or the Land Cruiser who gets off occasionally and actually follows the tracks of the animals. It's cool. It's an exciting experience. There's this kind of thrill of the chase that's part of the safari experience in Southern Africa. We haven't mentioned Ngorongoro Crater. Again, a spectacle. I've been there. Amazing place in Tanzania, the Ngorongoro Crater. Just like a big bowl full of animals. But you'll be one of 300 vehicles literally queued up in the morning to get into that big bowl.
SPEAKER_02:Incredible. Can I ask, Ben, if you are self-driving, because I want to tease this out a little bit more, if you are self-driving, And I agree with you when I've been on safari and in a lot of parts of the world, you'll find Europeans are much more self-drive oriented. Do you have to, can you take a guide with you while you're driving or are you generally on your own?
SPEAKER_00:Look, that sort of happens in really remote parts of some countries where I have a friend who did a self-drive in the Maasai Mara, which is very out there, you know, because it's not really geared for that. And he actually asked a ranger to go out with him just to give him some tips on where to go because the roads weren't well marked. Sometimes there were no roads. But no, in South Africa, you do it yourself. But what you can do, and this is a pretty good thing to do, is if you go to somewhere like the Kruger National Park or Etosha National Park, which is lovely up in Namibia. And I've only talked about There are wonderful parks in KwaZulu-Natal. I don't know if people know how to write these down. The Kalahari Transfrontier Park in the Kalahari Desert. So these South African national parks, they are geared to local self-drive travel. But what you can do, Bill, is they also offer escorted activities. So if you're self-driving and self-catering and you think, maybe I need a little bit of help or someone to go out and show me a few more things, you can pay to go on the drives with national parks guides. And the other cool thing you can do is you can go on night drives. So you're not allowed to drive your own car after the dark, but you can pay to go on a national parks vehicle. It's not expensive. And then you get out at night, you go looking for things like leopards and civets and genets, these nighttime type creatures. And you can also go on a walk, which is also fantastic. Either a three hour morning walk Or there's even trails where you go out to a remote camp and you walk in the morning and the afternoon every day for three days. So you can do those escorted activities as well as self-driving. And why not combine both? Why not say, I'm going to have a week driving around in a rental car on the Kruger Park. You actually rent a little hatchback because the roads are good. You drive around for a week. You see all the zebras and the giraffes and the wildebeests and that's all fantastic and you're probably going to see a lion but then maybe check into a mid-range private game reserve there's a few that are actually inside the Kruger Park as well and have your last two nights in the lap of luxury like you've experienced where everything's done for you and maybe you can say yeah to the guy look I didn't see a leopard when I was driving around myself maybe we can go looking for a leopard
SPEAKER_02:I do like that idea of picking up or you do see sometimes people talking about tag-along tours and stuff and being able to drive at night. Because I do worry about two things. One thing is that I might drive over something and the other is that I might inadvertently be eaten by something or I've had a brush with elephant and I swear to goodness, terrifying, life-affirming, adrenaline giving and all of that sort of thing, but also a little disconcerting. We are running out of time and it's breaking my heart to tell you this. So I'm going to ask you for your last question, which is the one that we ask everybody. I can't wait to see what you bring to this one, given all that we've just talked about. What is your most bizarre travel experience?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've had lots. I was driving in Wangu National Park one day and I looked out the window. I saw some tracks on the ground of a rhino. I thought, you don't see a lot of rhinos up there, unfortunately, anymore. And I looked up from the track and there was the rhino. And it put its head down and it charged at me. It's a black rhino. They've got a reputation for being very aggressive. And it chased my wife, a little land rover, no joke, for five kilometres. at up to 40 kilometers an hour on these terrible roads. And I thought this thing was trying to kill me. And I finally shook it off and got to a camp and I recorded it. And this National Parks guy says, that's Chiwori. I said, I didn't know it had a name. And he says to me, she was hungry. And I said, what do you mean she was hungry? He said, they don't eat people. They don't eat people. And he said, no, she was an orphan whose mum had been killed by poachers. And she'd been hand-reared by National Parks rangers and relocated to that park. And whenever she saw a little green Land Rover like ours, she thought it was the food truck. So she was not trying to kill us. She was trying to get food. And we heard that when the local luxury lodges stopped to set out their sundowners, which they do in the bush, it's a tradition where they put out drinks and snacks for their guests somewhere in the middle of the bush. Chihuahua would sometimes emerge from the bush and crash the party and go and eat all the chips. That was quite a funny, scary, funny, scary experience.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my goodness, that is phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. Okay, thank you. Now you just made me rethink my self-driving reading streak through Southern Africa. But if I do, I'm calling you because I'm going to ask you for all of the tips and advice. It has been so great to talk to you. I'm sorry that we've got to cut it off now. Good luck with the next book and I can't wait to read it and to see what the one after that is because I'm sure that you've still got a million books in to you. Thank you for joining us on the podcast, Tony.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, Bill. It's been great chatting. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:What an exhilarating or incredibly frightening experience being chased by a rhino. Well, that was author Tony Park. And as he mentioned in the interview, his latest novel is out in just a couple of weeks. To see all Tony's novels set in Southern Africa and to learn more about the wildlife conservation charities that he supports, visit his website, which is TonyPark.net. And we'll also include some of Tony's recommendations, such as the luxury Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge and some budget self-drive suggestions in the show notes. Our tip this week is about tapping into new experiences on the Australian ski scene. So if you're like us and you're in southern Australia, you've probably been trying to keep warm as winter sets in. But why not just embrace it? And this weekend, which is King's birthday long weekend, the Australian ski season kicks off.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, my marker actually for the start of the snow season is always the Eldies ski gear sale. All of that lovely merino wool. Did you see the hitching onesies, Kirsty? Apparently onesies are back, although I think people forget how terrible they are when they're going to loo when you're on the floats.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, gosh. Onesies were such a thing back in those tops you used to wear when you were clubbing in your 20s and they were like, did you wear those really tight tops? Had the dome button underneath those were challenging to get it to.
SPEAKER_02:I really didn't. Maybe that was a Kiwi thing. I don't know what you're talking about, but I need a photo. I mean, I want a photo of you in a club with a button on your onesie. I don't know what you're doing. Buttoned up
SPEAKER_01:underneath the crotch. And yeah, so you're wearing this like really, those really tight tops and then they buttoned up underneath. So it was just when you talked about how hard it was to go to the loo in a onesie, I was saying it just instantly brought back memories of, yeah, back in the days of.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my God. I know what you're talking about. I was so confused then. Yeah, all right. Yes, nice. Anyway, take
SPEAKER_01:our skiing. That'd be warm though. That'd still be warm. That's all I think. We would work. First up is news from Perisher Kosciuszko National Park, which is the largest alpine resort in Southern Hemisphere. And this season, you can see the launch of the very new high-speed six-seater chairlift. That means, of course, shorter lines and more skiing. It was a$26 million chairlift, and it also halves the time. So instead of it taking 10 minutes to get up to the summit of Mount Perisher, it now takes five and a half. And the$26 million that they spent on creating this also means that they removed 17 lift towers. So that gives you more ski terrain.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's great. And then Threadbow, which is at the foothills of Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, I love that in 2025, it is having its three-day Rainbow Mountain event again, which is an LGBTI plus celebration from the 7th to the 9th of August with the Poof Doof Ski Club, free entertainment across the mountain and the Pride Ride down Sucre Trail, which sounds like just so much fun. And also a tip, a lot of the resorts have actually gone or are now becoming cashless.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, oh my God, I love that Poof Doof Ski Club. Happy birthday. What a cool name. And yeah, it's a really good point about being cashless. The latest move to cashless is Lake Mountain, which is going cashless for the 2025 season. That's actually the closest ski field to Melbourne, just under two hours east of the city. And it's best suited to just snow play, really, and beginners. But it does also have cross-country ski trails.
SPEAKER_02:And staying in Victoria, Hotham Resort has launched some new learn to ski packages. And I think this is really smart. They are priced from just$99 for adults and a little more for kids. So that gives you a group lesson and access to the dedicated beginner area, Friday flat. And they've also shared some tips on getting the best value for your time in the snow. Hotham says book early, of course, to save. You can save up to 70% on your tickets. And midweek ski is, of course, much cheaper than skiing on the weekend, but as much as half price. And Hotham also suggests buying your lift passes, lessons and rentals online. online, which is going to save 10% on the same day prices at the resort if you're buying at the window.
SPEAKER_01:And if you want to know what the snow's like before you head out, jump onto the resort's websites, which have live cameras for all the snow action. And we will put a link to all of those in the show notes. So we can continue to bring you inspirational travel interviews with the world's best. Next week, I'm chatting to free diving champion, ocean conservationist and founder and director of I Am Water, Hanley Prince-Lew, about her remarkable journey from living on a horse farm in South Africa, where the closest ocean is more than 10 hours away, to becoming a free diving world champion and holding free diving retreats.
SPEAKER_02:That sounds amazing. What a journey. And if you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. Click onto our profile. Scroll down to the bottom to ratings and reviews. And if you're on Spotify, go to our main page and click the three dots under our photo. Or simply drop us a line at hello at theworldawaits.au. We love nothing more than hearing from our listeners. That's a wrap for The World Awaits this week. Click to subscribe anywhere you listen to your favourite pods. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
